DEVELOPMENT
Sport mentoring is a new dimension of mental preparation and management for athletes, teams, coaches, and sports professionals.
U16
A comprehensive personality and behavioural analysis and evaluation of 11- to 15-year-old athletes, which defines the information and targets necessary for the person in question to reach their maximum performance. The evaluation clearly determines to what extent the athlete in question is utilising their own resources, that is the reserves still hidden inside the athlete in terms of results, which can be realised with appropriate mental preparation. It unambiguously specifies the mental strengths and weaknesses of the athlete, to what extent they apply these, and what they think about the image they have to project outward during trainings and competitions. The analysis uses indicators to reveal how the personality of the analysed athlete is reflected in their sports performance, which in turn provides support in their preparation and leveraging their maximum capacity. The U16 Sport test supports the athlete in planning their own studying habits and the effective preparation for studying through study indices, thus ensuring that athletes will continue to be successful in business life as well after their sports career.
THE U23-ADULT
TRANSITION
The biggest challenge in youth education is guiding young talent into adult sport. Between ages 17 and 23, professional competition is already taking place, where youth athletes can experience real competitive conditions. However, depending on their personality type, they respond to this early challenge in very different ways and if we focus on this period uniformly or without the right allowances for personality type, the young talent will forever remain an “unfulfilled promise”, spoken of as “that great talent that never really went anywhere”. In fact, the personality-based management of athletes becomes critical at this age. If self-awareness has already been developed in the U16 age group, then the key challenge is to place athletes in crisis situations and then evaluate the experience of those situations, and overall increase their individual crisis threshold. It is particularly important that the athlete does this deliberately. At this age, the child is still following instructions and trying to conform to external expectations, and is therefore willing to give up their true personality. If they do, they cannot master crisis experiences with their own identity, understand their reactions to stressful situations, and learn to manage them. This is one of the reasons why many U23 athletes are unable to succeed as adults.
The U23 age group is a critical period in sports, as both the athlete and the coach have to meet two completely opposite challenges at the same time: on the one hand, they have to learn to manage crises, that is, they have to get into crisis situations and often fail there, so that they can learn valuable lessons. But on the other hand, results must be achieved, which requires as stable of a performance as possible without taking risks. Complex personality analysis and the related mentoring work help to manage this inherent conflict.
For nearly ten years, 8848 has helped athletes successfully make the youth-to-adult transition, the basis of which is the timely mental preparation of athletes and the management and education of youth coaches.
A comprehensive personality and behaviour assessment of athletes aged 17-23 defines the information and actions needed to reach the individual’s performance peak. The assessment clearly defines the extent to which the athlete is using their potential, i.e., what dormant potential still exists in the athlete that can be activated with the right mental preparation. The assessment looks at the athlete’s “present personality”, “competition personality”, “crisis personality”, and “short-term behaviour”, and draws conclusions based on these data points. It clearly identifies the athlete’s mental strengths and weaknesses, the extent to which they apply them, and how they think they should act towards the outside world during preparation and competition. The analysis reveals the personality of the person analysed in sport through indexes, which support the preparation of the athlete to achieve maximum performance. The U23 Sport Assessment also supports the athlete in planning their education via academic indices, ensuring that athletes can be successful in business after completing their athletic careers.
PARTNERSHIPS
WITH ACADEMIES
Mentoring for youth academies is a specialised field; currently, only 8848 Sport Mentoring can provide a complex solution for its partners. The scope and objectives of academies are complex and multi-dimensional. Their primary responsibility is to educate young people and prepare them for a life as athletes, which naturally includes appropriate selection and development processes. But, alongside this, academies need to make a significant contribution to each child’s successful future. The aims of each academy may vary, and the development strategy needs to be structured accordingly. A significant advantage of 8848 in this area is that it provides the knowledge and background necessary to achieve business objectives, such as building and developing the academy’s brand and image (which is important in attracting and retaining potential athletes), managing communications work and building the academy’s business concept. In addition to this, 8848 provides mental development mentoring for the academy’s junior teams, coaches, and staff to ensure that young people undergo the proper mental development during their academy years. In many cases, the business and mental development areas are developed separately, but the Academy’s objectives and the translation of these into mental development programmes are key elements in the development of athletes and teams. We also manage academy development in team and individual sports in countries across North America, South America, and Europe.
The programme of cooperation with the academies is fundamentally determined by the objectives of the academy management, which will be defined during the first strategy meeting.
SELECTION (ATHLETE / COACH / PROFESSIONAL STAFF)
STEP 1: Strategic opening meeting with the professional management, defining the teambuilding objectives and goals
STEP 2: Analysis of international trends in the sport (position, individual, team)
STEP 3: Comparison of the international tournament/championship systems and their Success Profiles
STEP 4: Defining Success Profiles based on the information from Steps 1 to 3
STEP 5: Player/coach monitoring based on online analysis/player/coach selection assessments, profile-based selection
TEAM DEVELOPMENT
STEP 1: Completion of online tests by the entire team (athletes, coaches, professional staff)
STEP 2: Individual evaluation of assessments, preparation of team analysis
STEP 3: Interactive, dynamic introspection and motivation workshop for the entire team (approx. 2 hours)
STEP 4: Interactive, strategic, in-depth analysis and presentation to the professional management (approx. 2 hours)
STEP 5: Individual motivational advising, future planning for the professional manager
STEP 6: Interactive preparatory workshops on specific topics for the entire team (approx. 2 hours)
HEAD COACH MENTORING
Concrete, practical match strategy and tactical consultancy before necessary matches Individual mentoring of the head coach during the tournament (questions and discussions, handling special situations, etc.)
COACH TRAINING
A training programme for coaches and professionals working with young athletes based on academic guidelines and the athletes’ personalities. The training provides sports professionals with a personalised development that contributes to work with a significant reduction in stress levels in the long run, and thus to the successful training of young athletes.